EP40: Structural Epoxy Used for Steel Bonding in Marine Applications

Overview of Master Bond EP40

Master Bond EP40 is a two-part, room-temperature-curing epoxy for bonding, sealing, coating, and encapsulating. This low-to-moderate viscosity system has a forgiving 1-to-1 mix ratio by weight or volume and can be cured at ambient temperatures or more rapidly at higher temperatures. EP40 bonds well to a variety of substrates, including naval steel, the primary structural metal used in the shipbuilding industry.

Application

To reduce its environmental impact and pollution, the shipping industry is investigating methods to construct more lightweight ships. One potential method is using adhesive bonding techniques to replace traditional welding and riveted joints on ships to fabricate lighter ships with smaller carbon footprints. However, adhesives age and deteriorate when exposed to moisture, high temperatures, and ultraviolet light. This makes it necessary to understand how they age in maritime environments to determine whether they can truly replace traditional welding techniques. To this end, researchers at Centro de Investigación en Tecnologías Navales e Industriales (CITENI) and Centro de Investigación TIC (CITIC) developed a new method for studying adhesive aging on naval steel substrates. Master Bond EP40 was selected as the test adhesive for this method due to its strong performance and suitability for marine conditions. By using EP40, the team ensured that the observed adhesive bonding behavior would reflect a high-quality epoxy’s potential in ship structures. The goal was to evaluate how EP40 bonds to naval steel and how the bulk epoxy material would behave in seawater to provide insights into the construction of lighter ships using this approach.

To read more about the key parameters and requirements, and to learn the results of this case study using EP40, please download here.

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